How to Automatically Publish Your Posts to Social Media

Getting the word out that you have published new content on your WordPress website is crucial to driving more traffic, increasing conversions, and boosting sales. And, it doesn’t matter if you are small-time blogger or a huge corporation either. If you want to build a bigger brand for yourself, you must spread the word about what you have to offer to your target audience.

Want to know one of the best ways to do this?

Yup, you guessed it, via social media.

The importance of social media cannot be understated.  And what’s better, your loyal customers, potential customers, and anyone in between, want you to reach out to them on their favorite social media networks.

Social media users spend a lot of time scrolling through content, making decisions based on what they see, and spending money on their favorite products found via social media.  As such, you should share all of your website’s content on any social media network that engages your target audience.

However, sharing your newly created content manually across several social media networks can prove time-consuming and frustrating. Surely you have more important things to do. That is why so many WordPress users opt to share any new content they publish via their social media accounts, automatically. As an easier, more convenient way of sharing published content, auto-sharing beats out manually sharing any day.

That’s why today I am going to show you how to automatically share all of your website’s content using a great plugin called NextScripts: Social Networks Auto-Poster (also known as SNAP).

A Quick Look at Social Networks Auto-Poster (SNAP)

Social Networks Auto-Poster is a WordPress plugin that automatically shares published posts from your WordPress website directly to any social media networks you use. Simply write a post on your website and publish. SNAP automatically shares either your entire post or a pre-determined announcement, complete with a backlink, to all of your social media networks.

This plugin comes in two versions, free and paid. Though the free version comes packed with plenty of features, if you want things such as scheduled or delayed posting, the ability to share to multiple accounts per social network, or the option to post on Google+ and Pinterest, you must invest in the PRO version.

That being said, here is a run-down of popular features that come with the free version of SNAP:

• Supports over 30 social networks with more coming soon.
• Posts adapt to the network being shared on.
• Sharing messages are 100% customizable.
• 100% White Labeled posts look like you shared content manually.
• Assigns categories to each social network.
• Auto-imports comments from Facebook and WordPress comments.
• Auto-imports replies and mentions from Twitter as WordPress comments.
• Supports multiple URL Shorteners including bit.ly, goo.gl, YOURLS, and even the default WordPress URL Shortener.
• Creates custom URLs for AutoPosts.

Using Social Networks Auto-Poster (SNAP)

If you can install and activate a WordPress plugin and set up your personal social media accounts, you should have no problems configuring SNAP on your website.

Step 1: Install & Activate Plugin

First, navigate to Plugins > Add New and search for Social Networks Auto-Poster.  Then select Install Now.

Lastly, click on Activate Plugin.

Step 2: Configure SNAP Settings

Notice after activating the SNAP plugin that you now have a new menu item under Settings in your WordPress dashboard. Click on that to configure the plugin’s setting options.

Once clicked, you are taken to the Next Scripts: Social Networks Auto Poster Options page where you can see your personal social media accounts, configure the plugin’s settings, check your log/history, access help/support, and configure a message to be shared on your social media networks.

There are several setting options for you to configure in the SNAP plugin:

• Determine if your posts should share immediately or work on the WP Cron.
• Configure your User Privileges/Security settings.
• Set up general criteria filtering which type of posts should auto-post based on categories and tags, post type and post format, and even author.
• Select which URL Shortener to use, adding the appropriate API Key for each option.
• Allow social network comments to auto-import onto your website as WordPress comments.
• Set the URL Parameters – let WordPress set the links, force SSL, or force NON-SSL.
• Configure auto-hashtag settings.
• Set character limits on %ANNOUNCE% tag settings, add open graph tags, and configure advanced featured image settings.
• Set the Debug/Report settings.

All of this is pretty explanatory and is based on your individual website needs. After configuring the settings, select Update Settings to save your changes.

Step 3: Add a Social Media Account

From your Next Scripts: Social Networks Auto Poster Options page select Your Social Networks Accounts to add a new social media network to auto-post your website’s content on.

Click on the button labeled Add new account to get started. Today I will be showing you how to set up a Twitter account so that all published content will automatically post to your Twitter feed.

When I click on the Twitter option, a popup appears that has multiple fields to fill out. In order for the SNAP plugin to share your website’s content on Twitter you must create a Twitter App for your website. This is because Twitter uses OAuth to provide authorized access to its API. That’s why the plugin requests this  information.

If you are unsure as to where to get some of this information, click on convenient link that leads you to further instructions.

From there, follow the instructions for creating a Twitter app (which is very easy). If you have previously created a Twitter app (as I have) simply login to the appropriate Developers website, click on your already created app, and see the information required to connect SNAP to Twitter. If not, create your app and you will then see the required connection information.

Add your Twitter app information into the SNAP plugin popup fields and select Update Settings. Notice that a social media network has successfully been added to Your Social Networks Accounts.

Now whenever a new blog post is published on your website it will automatically be shared on your Twitter feed.

You will do this for every social media network you use.  There are detailed explanations here that can help guide you through each network setup.

Step 4: Auto-publish to Social Media Account

Now that my Twitter account has been added to the SNAP plugin, it is time to auto-post a blog to my Twitter feed. I drafted a short test post complete with a post title, content, and featured image.

This was the result when I selected Publish and my post went live:

Notice the title of my blog post, featured image, and blog excerpt are all included in the Tweet. In addition, my auto-post is completely linkable meaning anyone that clicking on my Tweet is automatically directed back to my website where the post originated from.

Step 5: Try the New Post to Social Networks Option

Now that you know how to auto-publish a new blog post to your Twitter account, I will show you how to create a customizable message to include in your Tweet. Keep in mind however that this is a manual method, though it can be applied across many social media networks thus saving lots of time.

First navigate to New Post to Social Networks.  Here you will fill out the personalized message you wish to accompany your blog post.

• Title your Tweet.
• Draft your personalized message complete with the URL of your new blog post.
• Choose the Post Type – Text Post, Link Post, or Image Post and add a URL if appropriate.
• Select the social media networks you wish to publish this personalized message to.
• Select Post.

This is what my Tweet looked like upon selecting Post:

Here you can see my personalized message, title, blog excerpt, and featured image. Again, my Tweet is fully linkable which allows interested viewers to check out my website.

Final Thoughts

There is no denying that social media networks play a large role in the success of your website. Whether your goal is to gain more readers, sell more products or services, or promote your best work, utilizing the power of social media is a wise move.

That being said, Social Networks Auto-Poster is by far one of the greatest ways to automatically share your website’s content across whatever social media platforms your audience uses. It saves you time by automating the sharing process and encourages more traffic to visit your website.

SNAP is versatile and fairly easy to use, though setting up your social media accounts does take some time. However, with a free version being readily available, and the pros definitely outweighing the time it takes to initially setup your social media accounts, I would definitely recommend using the SNAP plugin as a way to automatically share website content to a wider audience. There really is no reason not to.

How about you, have you tried the Social Networks Auto-Poster plugin? How did you like it? I would love to hear all about it in the comments below!